Gorkha Janmukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung today appealed to all
political parties in the hills to come forward and protest against the
state government's decision to make the teaching of Bengali mandatory in
schools across the state.
Gurung said the forcible imposition of Bengali on the Nepali-speaking
people of the hills was an attempt to wipe out the culture of the
Gorkhas.
"Language is the foundation of any culture. The state government's
decision to teach Bengali as a compulsory subject across the state,
including the hills, is an assault on our language and culture. I would
like to appeal to all political parties, including the JAP (Jana Andolan
Party) and (hill) Trinamul Congress, to come forward under their
respective flags to protest the unwarranted imposition of Bengali on
us," he told a rally organised to celebrate the victory of the Morcha in
the recent polls to Kalimpong municipality.
Last week, state education minister Partha Chatterjee had announced
that students of all schools in Bengal would have to learn Bengali as a
compulsory subject from Class I to Class X, irrespective of their native
language or the boards their institutes are affiliated to.
The Gorkha Janmukti Yuva Morcha held a rally in Darjeeling today to protest the alleged Bengali imposition on the hills.
The march began from the railway station and ended before the district magistrate's office.
Hundreds, including teachers and students, had started the rally, but
the police stopped those students in uniform from completing the rally.
"Students had come to the protest rally of their own volition. They
were not holding our party flags. They were there because they, too, are
opposed to the imposition of Bengali," said Prakash Gurung, the
president of the Yuva Morcha.
He also threatened to intensify the protest throughout the hills and
the Dooars and the Terai if the government didn't have a rethink on the
issue.
"If the government feels that Bengali is not being adequately
popularised, then it has to find more acceptable ways of making it
popular among the masses. Imposing it on the people, especially on
another group which is linguistically different, is definitely not the
solution," Prakash said.(TT)
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